"THE MORMON" FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE UNION—THE U.P. RAILWAY—INTERVIEWS WITH PRESIDENT FRANKLIN PIERCE—U. S. OFFICIALS—INVASION OF UTAH—DEPARTURE FOR SALT LAKE.

Besides defending the character of the Saints in Utah and their religion, The Mormon raised its voice for the preservation of the Union. In those years disunion sentiments were rife and schemes for splitting up the country into two or more nations were openly discussed. The Mormon sounded a warning to those engaged in such discussions, and called upon the degenerate sons of noble sires to cease such wrangling and preserve the nation bequeathed to them by their fathers.

The Mormon also urged the construction of a railroad to the Pacific coast, and, in short, discussed in an intelligent spirit the general questions then agitating the public mind.

Elder Taylor occasionally visited Washington, and assisted in watching over the interests of the inchoate state of Deseret. He was introduced to and had several interviews with Mr. Franklin Pierce, then the President of the United States. The first of these interviews occurred in the spring of 1855, when President Pierce, following a mistaken popular sentiment, rather than acting from any relish he had for the undertaking, was persuaded to remove Brigham Young from the office of Governor of Utah. In this interview President Pierce submitted the proposition to Elder Taylor and spoke very highly of the urbanity, wise conservatism and honor of Colonel Steptoe, the man he had in his mind to appoint as Governor Young's successor.

Elder Taylor expressed his pleasure at learning that Colonel Steptoe was so honorable a gentleman, and took occasion to tell the President that the people of Utah had been so frequently abused by incompetent men who seemed determined to make a hobby of the Mormon question whereon to ride into power, that they began to think their rights were infringed upon and that they were used as a convenience for unprincipled political aspirants, who frequently not only interfered with their political but with their religious rights.

The President assured him that Colonel Steptoe would not resort to such meanness.

Elder Taylor then referred to the circumstances under which Utah had been settled, in all of which Brigham Young was their trusted leader; that if any man had a claim upon that position it was Governor Young. Besides, accepting the doctrine of popular sovereignty, the people of Utah considered that their wishes as to who should govern them ought to be somewhat consulted, and if that were done, Brigham Young would be the universal choice of the people. Still he assured the President that he need have no anxiety as to any difficulty arising from his appointing another man: for while the people would think it an act going to the extent of his authority, they of course recognized the authority of the President of the United States, and would submit to any legal or constitutional enactment.

Colonel Steptoe during his stay in Utah was tendered the governorship of Utah by the President, but he refused to accept it, and joined in a petition to President Pierce praying for the re-appointment of Brigham Young, both as Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Governor Young was accordingly re-appointed.

In March, 1856, a Constitutional Convention was held in Salt Lake City, and a constitution, republican in spirit and liberal in its provisions, was adopted. John Taylor and George A. Smith, appointed delegates to present Utah's request for admission into the sisterhood of states. Elder Taylor joined his colleague in Washington during the summer of 1856, and labored among the members of Congress with a view of having a bill introduced for the admission of Utah. The Republican party, however, was already in the field with its platform that denominated polygamy and slavery as "twin relics" of barbarism. This marshaled all the Republicans against the admission of Utah; and so desirous were the Democrats to cast off the odium of befriending a polygamous people, that they were more bitter in their denunciation of the Mormons, if possible, than the Republicans. Even Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who had been a professed friend of the Mormon people, and who had been intimately acquainted with the Prophet Joseph, and in addition to that was recognized as the champion of the Popular Sovereignty doctrine, turned against them, and in a speech delivered in Springfield, Illinois, early in 1856, referred to Mormonism as "the loathsome ulcer of the body politic."^[1]

Under such circumstances it would have been folly to have pushed the claims of Utah in Congress; it would only have invited defeat, therefore the delegates decided to withhold any introduction of the matter at that time.

In addition to all these labors, Elder Taylor rendered considerable valuable assistance in looking after the emigration business of the Church, especially in caring for the poor, who, having started from England, could get no further than New York. These he found employment for and watched over them with all the interest of a brother and a friend. He also directed the labors of the brethren who were preaching the gospel in the east and presided over all the churches. When he first went to the east to preside, the branches were disorganized, the Saints were scattered and like sheep without shepherds. But his assuming control of affairs was the signal for activity everywhere, and the work of the Lord revived. In reporting the progress of the work, early in 1856, we have him saying in The Mormon:

"It affords me very much pleasure to have to state that since the arrival of myself and brethren in these eastern states, Mormonism assumes quite another aspect: we have large and flourishing churches in different parts of this state, [New York] which are continually increasing, not only by emigration but by baptisms. The Spirit of the Lord rests among the assemblies of the Saints; the inquiries after truth are many; the floods of falsehood with which this country was deluged before our arrival are being dissipated, and the light of eternal truth is bursting forth with resplendence and glory."

The spirit of reformation which in those days moved on in such mighty power among the Saints in Utah, extended its operations among the Saints in the east, and there was a general awakening to a sense of duty and responsibility. President Young in a letter to Elder Taylor under date of October 30th, 1856, urged him to take up the work of reformation. He said:

"Brother Taylor, we are arousing the people of this Territory to a sense of their obligations and their duties; great and thorough reformations are pervading every quorum, every family, neighborhood and settlement. The power of the Highest is resting down upon us, and blessing our exertions. We wish to suggest to you that probably a reformation might transpire in New York among the Saints, and in other states, and in Europe and other places where there are any Saints. * * * Arouse you, then, first getting the Holy Ghost, and be ye filled with it, and pour it out upon the people. Preach evenings, make appointments in the various branches and fill them. Make the Elders feel the fire in you, and make them labor."

With many such words did he urge him forward to this work. But long before the slow mails brought the letter to hand, Elder Taylor had been seized with the spirit that the words of President Young were calculated to arouse within him; and the work of reformation was well advanced on the arrival of the letter. The speed of the Spirit of God out-ran the tardy mails, and communicated the will of the Lord to His servant.

Meantime the adversary was not idle. A number of United States officials that had been sent to Utah turned out to be the vilest of characters. Vain, ambitious, corrupt, revengeful, hypocritical; and evidently regarding the Mormons as their legitimate prey—as a people having no rights which they were under obligations to respect. As the time-serving, villainous Oswald, in King Lear, looked upon the eyeless head of the unfortunate, traitor-proclaimed and yet innocent Gloucester, as being framed to raise his fortunes, so did these impudent, corrupt officials regard the Mormon people; and hoped by opposing their unpopular religion, and social customs—with which they had, of right, nothing to do—to ride into popular favor and good fortune. Utah was to be a convenient stepping-stone to higher political preferment.

The outrages of these officials reached a climax in the conduct of Associate Judge W. W. Drummond; who, having deserted his wife in Illinois, brought with him a prostitute who sat by him on the judicial bench in open court; and in various ways insulted the people by unwarranted assaults upon institutions religious and social which they held to be most sacred; and even their territorial laws, to which the government at Washington had taken no exceptions whatever, were threatened by this gambler and black-leg, upon whose unworthy shoulders the ermine had been unwisely thrown. To the honor of the Mormon community, he did not long remain in the Territory to disgrace her judiciary, but fled in fear from Utah to California, from which place he wrote his resignation and falsely reported to the Attorney-General that the Mormons were in open rebellion to the government; that the records and papers of the supreme court had been destroyed by order of the Church; that Brigham Young and other leading Church officials were responsible for the murder of a number of U. S. officials who had died in the Territory, and others who had been massacred by Indians.

Upon receiving these statements from Judge Drummond, President Buchanan, without taking the pains to ascertain the truth or falsehood of them, about the latter part of May, 1857, ordered an army into Utah to suppress this imaginary rebellion.

Many criticisms were made upon the evident inconsiderate action of President Buchanan in this affair. Elder Taylor, in a discussion he had some years later on the "Mormon Question" with Vice-President Schuyler Colfax, in referring to this action on the part of the government, says: "Mr. Buchanan had another object in view, [than that of suppressing the "Mormon Rebellion"] and Mr. J. B. Floyd, Secretary of War, had also his ax to grind, and the whole combined was considered a grand coup d'etat. It is hardly necessary to inform Mr. Colfax that this army, under pretense of subjugating the Mormons, was intended to coerce the people of Kansas to his views, and that they were not detained, as stated by Mr. Colfax's history, which said: 'The troops necessarily moving slowly were overtaken by the snows of November and wintered at Bridger.' I need not inform Mr Colfax that another part of this grand tableau originated in the desire of Secretary Floyd to scatter the U. S. forces and arms preparatory to the Confederate Rebellion. Such is history and such are facts."

John B. Floyd, Secretary of War in Buchanan's cabinet, was from Virginia, and favored the southern cause, as indeed the whole administration and the party that elected it did; so that Elder Taylor's charge respecting the scattering of United States forces, rests upon the ground of strong probability. Relative to the charge that under pretence of subjugating Utah the President intended to coerce the people of Kansas to an acceptance of his views, it is true that part of the army for Utah left Fort Leavenworth before the last of July; but Brigadier-General Harney, to whom the command of the expedition had been given, remained with several squadrons of the second dragoons in Kansas, until after the elections in that Territory in October; and President Buchanan was involved in an intrigue to defeat the popular will in Kansas.

There is, however, another consideration which I doubt not influenced the action of the administration in sending an army to Utah. The party that supported the administration was anxious to give proof to the country that it was no more favorable to the unpopular Mormons than the Republican party was; and seized upon the false reports of Judge Drummond as a golden opportunity to out-herod Herod, hoping by that movement to throw off the odium its opponents had fastened upon it in charging that its doctrines of popular sovereignty would permit the people of Utah to establish polygamy as well as slavery if they so elected.

It was in May, 1857, that Elder Taylor left New York for the west. Judge William I. Appleby and T. B. H. Stenhouse were left in charge of The Mormon, and continued its publication until September 19th, when it was discontinued, principally on account of the threatened "Mormon War."

Footnotes

1. It may be of interest to note in passing that once in conversation with Senator Douglas, early in the forties—the Senator then being a judge in one of the judicial districts of Illinois—the Prophet Joseph said to him in substance: "Judge Douglas, you will yet aspire to the Presidency of the United States; but if you ever turn against me or my people, you will fail." When Senator Douglas forgot the warning of the Prophet and advocated cutting "the loathsome ulcer out of the body politic," he sounded the death knell to his ambitious hopes.